Boulder City Council has agreed with city staff’s recommendation to proceed with the Variant 1, 100-year South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project that initially was approved by council in June.
According to prior reporting from the Camera, the Variant 1, 100-year plan includes a 2,710-foot-long, 8.8-foot-tall flood wall along the edge of the property near U.S. 36 that would divert floodwaters into a detention pond or dam large enough to hold 467 acre feet of water.
The upstream option, according to a presentation in Tuesday’s council meeting, would place most or all of the project features on the south end of the CU South property. It would include an earthen embankment, a concrete dam and spillway and a levee as well as other design elements.
A staff memo states the project, which has been in the works for decades, is meant to protect portions of South Boulder from the effects of catastrophic flooding. The area was among the hardest hit in the 2013 flood.
“The upstream option could provide similar flood protection to the Variant 1, 100-year configuration,” engineering project manager Brandon Coleman said. “(But) it would be significantly more expensive, mainly related to that detention facility.”
The staff memo indicates the upstream version would cost $111 million, while the Variant 1, 100-year will cost $66 million.
Additionally, the analysis determined that the upstream option would have a greater environmental impact and wouldn’t reduce the need for engineered structures on Open Space land in the South Boulder Creek state natural area.
While the analysis took staff time and resources, it was worth it, according to Curt Brown of the Open Space Board of Trustees. Given the impacts of moving structures onto Open Space land, the board felt it pertinent to consider the option. Brown and Joe Taddeucci, Boulder’s director of public works for utilities, agreed that the analysis is beneficial regardless since it better demonstrates the environmental impacts of the flood mitigation projects.
The last six months of 2020 largely were spent working on this analysis. Now the city can move forward with work on an annexation agreement with the University of Colorado Boulder, which owns 308 acres that it wants to bring into city limits. The university has agreed to provide 80 acres for the flood mitigation work, contingent on annexation approval.
“In 2021, because we’re now focused on a single alternative for flood, the annexation agreement and that process will be coming forward,” Taddeucci said.
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February 08, 2021 at 12:00AM
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Boulder City Council to continue with original South Boulder Creek flood mitigation plan - Boulder Daily Camera
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